Slides: 11
Why and how:
Promoting your beauty clinic using Instagram influencers
There has been quite a buzz around aesthetic and beauty influencers on Instagram in the past couple of years. It is a very popular topic whenever we discuss social media marketing tactics with our partners and clients. As a leading aesthetic lasers and medical devices developer, it is important for us at Alma to be in the know of such matters. When we sell a laser or other energy-based medical or surgical aesthetic platform we strive to offer more than just technical or clinical support. We offer our business and marketing tips and support as well.
Many doctors and aesthetic clinics approach us weekly with questions about best practices on social media and digital marketing. We follow many on social media and especially on Instagram to be able to analyze and share what are the most successful tactics they can use to attract new potential patients to their practice. It is no secret that most small and up and coming businesses find it hard to invest regularly in proven yet expensive marketing channels. Sponsored ads on Google adwords or advanced SEO (search engine optimization) are usually performed by expert agencies (or highly trained freelancers) that charge quite a high monthly premium for their services in addition to the media budget that has to be put in the campaigns.
Providing answers to your questions about social media marketing
We try our best to offer solutions and advice that can also bring results organically, using the assets and basic skills the clinic owner and employees have. However, when a business wants to grow and take a leap forward, it is usually required to make a calculated investment in marketing. We’ve found that working with an Instagram influencer is a great way as it’s usually a one-time investment (compared to ongoing sponsored campaigns). Additionally, since it is confined in a short time frame and perhaps only 1-3 posts it’s easier for the beauty clinic to measure the impact and ROI from this type of promotion.
Between September 12-15th we’ll be at the Sheraton resort in Rhodes, Greece for the first ever Alma academy. As part of the agenda, we will hold a special social media lab, inviting aesthetic doctors for a one-on-one consultation meeting with our digital marketing team experts. in a survey we’ve sent out prior to the academy over 75% of clinic owners stated that they’d like to learn more about beauty influencers on Instagram and how to collaborate with them.
What kinds of Instagram influecers are there?
Instagram influencers can be categorized by amount of followers they have and also by content type. Content type can be a consideration when you’re looking for someone to appeal to a specific or niche audience. Main types are – the celebrity icon, the adventurer, the instructor, lifestyle guru, creative star and the entertainer. When looking at followers count we have:
Macro-influencers – with over 200,000 followers on their Instagram profile.
Power-middle influencers – 25,000-200,000 followers.
Micro-influencers – 25,000 followers or less.
You can also view a list of leading social media influencers by industry on hubspot.
When it comes to calculating the fee for an influencer, there is no rule but multiple sources sight this formula as being the most common – 100$ per 10,000 followers. So, for example someone with 100k followers might charge 1,000$ for a post. Of course there are other factors that come in to play and you are always welcome to haggle. Most influencers these days have a ready press kit that breaks down all available packages and options. These include number of posts, type of media (photo or video) etc.
How to find the right Instagram influencers for your practice?
The influencers’ followers count is also important for another reason. As mentioned before, you can use it as a base calculation for the fee they might charge for posting or sharing content about your services or clinic. Additionally, it can help you to calculate the average engagement rate these influencers get on their posts. Why is it important? When you choose to work with an Instagram influencer, you are mostly counting on their ability to organically reach a large number of people thanks to their large number of followers, but not only! You are also counting on their ability to create engagement (interest and affiliation that can be expressed through comments, likes and visits to your profile) on their posts.
You can calculate engagement rate of a post the following way. Add up all engagements of the post – comments, likes, shares (on Facebook) etc. Then divide this sum by the number of followers of the profile that posted it and multiply the result by 100. The average engagement rate per post on Instagram is 2%. Therefor, if an influencer you were considering has lower average engagement rate that’s not a good sign and you should perhaps move on to the next candidate.
Importance of relevancy
Last but not least you should also try to identify an Instagram influencer that has some affiliation to the benefits of the treatment or service you’d like to promote. E.g if you are promoting the Soprano laser hair removal treatment you can choose a tanned or dark skinned influencer. That is, if you know for sure there is a potential client base that shares these attributes with the influencer. We’re not recommending you to make this decision based on race. We’re simply adhering to the fact that the Soprano laser treatment is considered to be very safe for tanned skin. Moreover, you can perform this treatment even during the summer, so there’s another story the audience can relate too. Another example can be a fitness guru promoting body contouring treatments, a teenage influencer promoting Clearskin acne laser treatment and more.
If you regularly follow local beauty influencers (a large city will have a few of those) and are active on social media you will find it not so hard to compile a list of candidates.